Pizzagate

Pizzagate is an alleged conspiracy theory involving powerful Democrats, occult practices and child-sex slave trade. The story is based on an assumption that the John Podesta emails released by Wikileaks are coded messages rather than plain text.[1][2][3] The word "pizza" appears regularly in the emails, and conspiracy investigators claim that "pizza" is a code word to describe child sex. The Comet Ping Pong pizza establishment in Washington DC is alleged to be at the center or the front group in an underground network that involves John Podesta and Hillary Clinton. Comet Ping Pong is owned by David Brock's spouse, James Alefantis. Due to his extensive connections to the political class, this pizza store owner was named one of the 50 most powerful people in Washington, D.C. by GQ Magazine in 2012. Theorists directed attention to Alefantis' social media account from Instagram, no longer available to the public, which he had posted many disturbing photos of children, with lewd comments and much disturbing exotic adult art.[4] Many unsubstantiated accusations are leveled such as claims that the basement of Comet Ping Pong was the site for this illicit activity. However, Comet Ping Pong has no basement or underground tunnel systems. Also, the direction of conspiracy tends to drag in claims that the Podesta brothers were behind the abduction of Madeleine McCann.

The major news organizations have looked into the story and dismissed all allegations as false, fake news[5] and not a single law enforcement investigation of the conspiracy has occurred.[6] However, citizen journalists have attempted to document the allegations surrounding Pizzagate. The hashtag #Pizzagate can be frequently found on Twitter. Prolific users on Twitter that fuel the Pizzagate tweets are indefinitely banned. Also, the sub-Reddit r/PizzaGate was banned. This was quickly re-established on Voat.co as v/Pizzagate. #PIZZAGATE remains an active YouTube channel with about 6000 subscribers.

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Armed assault on Comet Ping Pong

On December 5, 2016, Edgar M. Welch, 28, of Salisbury, N.C., traveled to Comet Ping Pong to rescue the victims imprisoned in the basement of the restaurant. He entered the restaurant shortly before 3 p.m. with a rifle and fired it at least once inside, the police said. Welch demanded access to the basement, which does not exist. Welch was apprehended by the police and charged.[7] On June 22, 2017, he was sentenced to four years in prison.[8]

Michael G. Flynn, the 33-year-old son of the former National Security Advisor, had been working as a scheduler with his father on the Trump transition team. However, the younger Flynn had wrote some controversial tweets about the shooting at Comet Ping Pong. He was dismissed from the Trump transition team staff on December 6, 2016.[9]